A nested wok and a few pans, serving plates, plastic utensils and cookware, some basic spices, a squirt-tube of oil, and a handful of chemical heat tablets. With time and inclination, along with a few tinned goods or fresh ones, you can turn any flat surface berth into a make-do kitchen. Cookbook optional.

Crop Supplements

While terraforming has succeeded in making many planets habitable, the individual quirks of the various planets and moons make it difficult to predict whether or not a given crop will grow on each. Highly concentrated fertilizers and pesticides, packed into easily applied chemical pellets, are one of the more common solutions to this problem. Settlers usually bring a fair supply of crop supplements with them in order to ensure bountiful harvests for the first few years. The pellets come in drums, bags, or boxes; one container is enough for five acres when mixed with the seeds before planting or tilled into the earth beforehand. The benefits usually last for two or three growing seasons, depending on the crops being farmed.

Drink, Fine Wine

A case of twelve bottles of extremely good wine; what more needs be said? Good wine is hard to come by, so it can get very expensive, but many folk consider it worthwhile.

While not as good as fresh food, canned or otherwise pre-prepared food is still a fair bit better than processed protein. Since such food keeps indefinitely (or at least a whole lot longer
than the fresh stuff), food packs and canned fruit are popular among settlers and ship crews. The given price buys two or three boxes of different kinds of food, allowing one person to eat decently for about a week. Rationed, the food will go farther.

Foodstuffs, Fresh

This is what it’s all about: fresh vegetables, fruit, and meat. Unfortunately, real food is fairly expensive; folk can’t usually afford it unless things are going real smooth for them. Most
often, fresh food is bought in small amounts or is carefully rationed over a period of time, at least by those who live in the black.

Foodstuffs, Luxury

This is the kind of fancy-pants yummies you can’t even find most places on the Rim. A pound of fresh strawberries, a chocolate ice cream cake, caviar—such count as luxury goods to folk who live on the Rim. The units in which the goods are sold depends upon exactly what the food is. The price can vary as well, but whatever it is, it
will almost always be quite expensive.

Foodstuffs, Nutrient Bars

Nutrient bars — a Newtech Alliance ration — are perhaps the most compact form of food ever developed. Each bar is about the size and shape of a gold ingot and each is wrapped in foil. The actual bar is a brownish compound, nearly tasteless, but at least it’s better than protein paste. If sliced thinly, a single bar can provide 30 days’ worth of nutrition for one person.
The person will still need water and additional calories, but the vitamins, minerals, immune
supplements, and so on will allow them to subsist on an otherwise minimal diet.

Foodstuffs, Protein Paste

Tubes of colored and (supposedly) flavorsome protein paste are the standard diet for spacefarers in the ‘Verse. The paste is sometimes molded into different forms and cooked different ways. Sadly, it tastes about the same no matter what you do to it. Healthy, if boring, the paste stores a good long while.

Fresh Fruit

A rarity on the Rim, especially delicacies such as fresh strawberries.

Protein Chips

A common snack found pretty much everywhere, protein chips are soy-based, salty, and oh so tasty.

“Rotgut” Liquor

Crude alcohol brewed in some such distilling rig. It tastes something foul and is just barely on the friendly side of toxic, but it’s usually free. (Imbibing more than 1d2 cups of rotgut requires an EASY Endurance (Willpower + Vitality) roll or else the drinker feels nauseous and suffers a fearsome hangover).

Snack Bar

A snack bar is a single serving of either nutritious or delicious (rarely both) foods such as chocolate, dried fruit, grains, or even vegetable matter. One of the most popular brands of snack bars is the Fruity Oaty Bar, mostly due to their ever-present marketing efforts that blanket nearly every planet in the ‘Verse.

Spices, Common

Whether it’s mixed with (or added to) protein paste, canned vegetables, or fresh meat, a sprig of rosemary can make your day a little brighter.

Spices, Rare

Popular in the Core for those who can afford high class dining, rare spices such as saffron can be extremely expensive. A good cargo to carry, and even better to have if you can afford it.